Back From The Land Of The Lost

Ok...I suppose it's time to stop slacking off and get my tushie back to blogging. I have totally been lazy and though I have had several blogs posts put together in my head, I just haven't had the motivation for putting them on the computer. I will make it one of my resolutions to try to keep up with it better!

Rebecca's 5th Birthday

Thursday was Rebecca's birthday. My sweet little girl is a big 5 year old now. Totally stinks!!! She had a great day and pretty much did what she chose all day. Cap'n Crunch for breakfast (we DO NOT allow sugar cereal on school mornings so that was a treat!) I brought brownies to her class to share with everyone. She got to wear a crown all day and they even said her name on the morning announcements (which tickled her to bits). She picked a grilled cheese for lunch with Go-Gurt & blueberry applesauce. She got to play the Wii in the afternoon and since it wasn't freezing, Teresa and I took her to the playground. She picked meatloaf, mashed potatoes & mixed vegetables for dinner(a repeat from last year). She got to help Teresa make her cake and put a TON of sprinkles on it after it was frosted. She opened waaaay too many presents and then we sang happy birthday & blew out the candles. All in all...a pretty good day for a five year old.
She received a huge box of play-doh, some Cars toys/games, 2 new pairs of jammies (one superman with a cool cape), a new Leapster game (the system was handed down from Jaquelyn), T&T got her Guess Who, Jaquelyn got her 2 Webkinz & a Shining Star(all found at Goodwill for $1 apiece...2 of them with the tags unopened!!!), a set of rainbow markers, an American girl doll(look alike), some clothes for the doll, sidewalk chalk, a savings bond & $25 to spend. Pretty awesome haul!! Of course this was from all of her relatives, not just us.

I just have to mention that out of all of the pictures I posted for her birthday, my absolute favorite it the one with her hugging the teddy bear. I think she looks like a porcelain doll.

OH NO!!!

Oh my goodness.....I think I may totally freak out. We had a small problem with our DVR. It was making funny noises so I figured a quick call to DirecTV and we would be up and running in no time. Not so much. It's DEAD!!! Along with ALL. OUR. RECORDINGS!!!! What?!?!?!?! There's no master backup...no collection of everything saved in some secret warehouse somewhere....nothing. I'm so sad...:`( sniff, sniff. What is the use of enjoying modern technology if one day it just goes kablooey. No more movies saved, Smallville is gone, so much for watching "Men of a Certain Age" from the beginning. I can't list all the shows/movies we had saved. Luckily, we had put a few of the the items we knew we would want to always keep(Dan
It doesn't matter that they sent us a new one. At no charge other than shipping & handling. It's an empty shell that cannot replace the close personal relationship we had with our DVR. The many hours of Bones & House. Watching NCIS & NCIS LA with Dan. Snuggling all together to watch Smallville. Now we have to start from scratch.
And so it begins....

Hello, You Are Caller #9

Dontcha just love, love, LOVE radio stations this time of year! They are running contests constantly. Your truly was a lucky winner today! How I managed to be the right caller is a mystery but the right caller I was. I am now the proud (soon to be)owner of a $50 Wal-mart gift card. The only draw back...I have to go to the radio station to pick it up. Why is that a draw back you ask? The radio station I listen to is based out of Baltimore and more than an hour away from us. Oh well, even with gas money I am still coming out ahead. I am certain I can come up with a few errands that need to be run while I am over there anyhow. I can definitely think of which store the rest of our Christmas shopping will be completed in!!! Thanks be to God! He is definitely looking out for us!

Christmas Card Debacle

Ok I am just going to have to stop apologizing for not posting as often as I should. Consider this a blanket apology for a really long time.
So I got online with Walmart to order my Christmas cards. I used to order them from Sears but they are just toooooo expensive. I can get over 60 from Walmart for less than the first set of 20 from Sears. Last year, I purchased the rights to my Sears photos so I was able to take one of those pictures and use it at Walmart for our card. This year it was just not feasible to spend that much. I debated the idea of using one of their pictures anyway. I put a card together and checked it out but decided against it...yk since it was *illegal* and all. Even though I knew they wouldn't check or even care. Instead, I made the kids put on "Christmasy" pj's and pose under the tree (that wasn't quite decorated but I threw some ornaments on the bottom to make it look good). About 20 pictures later, I finally had one I liked and I put a much cuter Christmas card together. I ordered 60 of them, paid and was ready to pick them up the next day. Or so I thought....
When I went to pick them up I found ONE card with the kids in their pajama's...so cute.




















and SIXTY cards that I didn't want.

















Now, I'm not saying that I don't like the red card, I just *REALLY* like the blue one. Oh well, win some, lose some. I think I might just have to print out some copies of the pj picture to send along with the card.

It's Christmas Picture Time

One of the things I like most about getting ready for Christmas is our annual trip to Sears portrait studio. While it may not seem like I enjoy it to my children because I am spending so much time being very cranky about what they are wearing and how their hair looks, the end results are sooooo worth it.
This year's trip was a bit more...frustrating that other years but it was partly my fault. We usually have our pictures taken in late October or early November. This year I was a bit lax in getting an appointment and we just had them taken the day before Thanksgiving. Well as you can expect, the studio was a mad house. They had double booked each slot and we ended up waiting for about 45 minutes before we even got to go into the room and then another 15 minutes before she was actually ready for us. Not the best way to start out but at least I didn't have a fussy baby like some of the other people waiting. I was determined to be in and out as quickly as possible and even with a change of clothing for everyone, we were finished in 20 minutes. I think it might have been a record for us but maybe it helped that I came well prepared with poses from previous years that I liked.
Then the fun part....it will be about an hour before you can look at your pictures...say what?? Not too thrilled at this point but we still needed to take care of a few things in the area so not a huge deal. We don't get to the mall too often since it's 45 minutes away from our house. A trip to Claire's to get some birthday items for a friend of Teresa's (and a few stocking stuffers I managed to get past them :-}) and a stop in the food court and it was back to the portrait studio. But wait...who's that standing over there??? Why it's my awesome husband checking in to see how things were going. He was driving by the mall on his way home from work and realized we were still there. He actually volunteered to take the kids home while I finished up. What a guy!!! We trooped out to the van, gathered their things up, got the DVD out of the player to put into his vehicle and I sent them on their merry way.
Meanwhile, I got to go and sit and look at all the poses in peace. No kids saying "how much longer" & "aren't you finished yet". And because it was so busy, I got all the time I needed to look through the poses and decide how many sheets and all that jazz without the salesperson breathing down my neck. Heaven, I'm in heaven.
Then the best part happened. When I was finished, the woman who was helping me (who happened to be the manager) was busy with someone else so she asked one of the photographers to put my order together. I let him know what I wanted and made sure to mention that because I am a smile saver member I get buy one get one sheets Monday - Thursday (which is why we had to go on a Wednesday). He muddled and fumbled and managed to put the order through(wrong of course). Unfortunately for him, he must have pushed the wrong button somewhere because the printer started up and began printing out my pictures. Now I am not throwing away perfectly good money just to have my pictures printed on the spot. I can totally wait for them to come back in 10 days from the printers, especially since they cost more and I can just look at them online when I get home. So the manager came over and told him to scat. She fixed my order (he hadn't figured out how to add in the free ones) and processed it and went over to the cash register to ring it up. So she said to me "Since you have had to wait so long and have been so patient, I am going to give you all the pictures that printed out. I hate to throw them away, even though that is what we are supposed to do." WooHoo!!! Can you say FREE PICTURES!!! Really good ones too. Apparently there is an advantage to getting them there because they are really durable. You can spill anything on them (except alcohol or Purell) and it will wipe right off. No fingerprints either.
So now I have some of my Christmas pictures already and then still more whenever I get around to the mall again to pick them up. TOO COOL!!!! I don't suppose anyone is actually interested in seeing them...?? Well, since it's my blog, you have to anyhow. ;-P
I still haven't decided which one I like the best but I'm leaning towards the first one. I don't have a very good scanner so they are actually much better in person than they look here.

Blogstyle Iron Chef November

Guess who won the Iron Chef challenge for the month of November?!?!? Me that's who silly!! I am super excited. I practically never win stuff.
I have to send out a thank you to my Aunt Kathy who passed the awesome Cheesy Hash brown recipe on to me. Thanks Kathy!! What a gal!
Look at this...I'm actually posting 3 days in a row. Haven't done that is ages. Well I suppose you shouldn't get used to it since the holidays are upon us and everything is getting ready to be very hectic. Oh well...I'll do my best.
Thanks so much to everyone who voted for my recipe!!

Prayers Needed

We are finding ourselves in need of some big prayers this holiday season. My husband's work is having layoffs (again) next week and there is a good chance he will be up on the chopping block. Please pray that he makes it through this round or (even better) finds a different job (much closer) that he has been actively searching for for months. Although he is not thrilled with his place of work (yk, since it's more than two hours from here) at least it is a job. A job that we desperately need since *I* can still not find anything in this rinkydink town that will fit into the hours I am available. I know there are many out there that have fallen victim to this stinky economy and are much worse off than we are but I am praying very hard that we at least make it through Christmas before the hammer falls. (not sure why that would be better but it certainly couldn't be worse!)

Not Me! Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not drive to Jaquelyn's school when I was supposed to be driving to Taylor's school to pick her up. It did not take me until I was practically at Jaquelyn's school before I figured it out. I am not that scatterbrained.

I did not let the cashier at Target recharge my card for my purchases after adding adding a pack of gum just to take advantage of the "spend $100 get a $10 gift card" special. I am not really, really, really hoping the credit for the first charge shows up before the rent check clears.

We did not eat our Thanksgiving dinner two hours later than planned because I did not fail to read the directions on the stuffing that said it needed to bake for an hour. And I was not already running behind when I finally figured this out. It is not almost a tradition to eat our meal soooo late because I always do something to mess up the eating schedule.

We did not spend more than 2 hours at Sears dealing with the Portrait studio on Wednesday. It did not actually pay off a small bit to be so patient with them and the result was not 6 sheets of our portraits printed right there in the studio due to a mistake by one of the employees. The manager did not decide to let me have them for free rather than throw them away since I had been so understanding through all the waiting. I was not totally psyched! I cannot wait to scan the pics in and show them to everyone!

I did not take Taylor and Teresa to our local Good Will on Saturday and spend over $50. It was not their monthly 50% off all clothing sale on the last Saturday of the month. I am not totally excited to wear the new holiday fleece I found there! I am not going to make the kids model their clothes so I can take pictures and put a longer post together soon.

My 4 year old is certainly not wearing clothes that my 10 year old wore at 6 & 7. Rebecca is not that tall....or is it that Jaquelyn wasn't that short? Either way they are not vastly different in height at this age.

Black Friday

Hello! Hello...Hello? Anyone still out there? Probably not but I will put a quick post together anyhow. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We had a fun, lazy kinda day that we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Today is known far and wide as "Black Friday". I rarely venture out on this scary shopping day, although I did when I was young and careless. This year, I actually found a few things that would be great for Christmas in the Target circular. so I dragged myself out of bed and showered at O Dark Thirty this morning. I DID NOT wait in line like the other morons die hard shoppers but instead walked in at 5:15am with no line and carts sitting around waiting for the *smart* shoppers. I actually found everything but 1 item on my list and that was only a "maybe" anyhow. It was not a mob house and when I was finished and ready to wait in line, there was one person in front of me. I stopped off at the grocery store, bought bagels for the Coffee Shop and was back in bed and asleep less than 3 hours after I woke up. All in all, definitely worth it.
Target was running a special this morning if you spent $100 you received a $10 gift card. I was pleasantly surprised to find my total just over and mentioned it to the clerk. After I had swiped my credit card, she informed me that I only went over because of the tax...my before tax total was $99.18 and therefore it didn't count. Are you KIDDING me!!!! Don't you think you could have mentioned that before I paid...I could have added a pack of gum or something. So she said she could ring it up again but my credit card would be charged twice and the credit would show up later. I wasn't thrilled but decided it was worth the extra ten bucks. Of course if I had remembered the motor oil for my van it wouldn't even have been an issue.